5 TIPS FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS TO PARIS

We’ve all been there! It’s our first time in a new city and we have no clue where we’re going, let alone the language! Well, here are 5 tips for first time visitors to Paris that should help you out before you visit the city of love!

Take the metro!

The metro is the fastest and cheapest way to get around the city. The Parisian metro is one of the oldest and most extensive in the world. It also happens to be one of the cheapest. If you buy a ‘carnet’ which is when you buy a book of ten metro tickets at once, it’ll cost under €1.50 a journey!

Pick up a few french phrases before you go.

Never ever tell yourself ‘Oh, I’ll pick up some phrases on the plane.’ Because we all know that that never happens! Also, it’s all well and good telling yourself that you’ll pick up some French phrases when you’re there but trust me, you’ll thank me later!

Even learning the basics before you go will help you enormously. People are a lot more likely to help you if you’re lost etc. if you’re at least trying to make an effort in their language. Even a simple ‘Bonjour. Parlez-vous Anglais, s’ilvous plaît?’ is better than nothing!

Don’t fall prey to any of the infamous tourist scams.

As one of the most touristic cities in the World, Paris is absolutely full of tourist scams! From the ring scam where someone will try and trick you into giving them money to being pickpocketed, Paris is a haven for thieves. Just make sure that you’re aware of you surroundings all the time!

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Sophie Nadeau loves dogs, books, Paris, pizza, and history, though not necessarily in that order. A fan of all things France related, she runs solosophie.com when she's not chasing after the next sunset shot or consuming her weight in sweet food. Currently based in Paris after studies in London, she's spent most of her life living in the beautiful Devonian countryside in South West England!

Great tip about the water! I had no idea. I’m going back to Paris in March and will be sure to order a carafe instead of a bottle. And I definitely found it helpful to know a few French phrases before going. Thanks for the tips!

A great post thanks for sharing! We learnt that water trick the first day of our travels to Paris and loved taking the metro! I wish we had left Paris at some point tho – regret not going to Disneyland (next time!)

I agree with you on all of these. I live in Paris myself, and the first thing I learned when I moved here was to order food, drinks – including un carafe d’eau – and my daily coffee in french (un café au lait sur place, s’il vous plaît) . C’est necessaire, ça!

Great tips! Seriously. Every single one of these. I fell in to the whole ‘bottled water’ trap, but that was only because I didn’t know how to order a ‘carafe’. For some reason in my five years of French, it never came up ONCE. Crazy right?! As soon as I googled it we finally had our tap water lol. Last time I was in Paris we took the metro everywhere too. It was actually quite easy to use!

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Sophie Nadeau

Travel Writer & Culture Blogger

Bonjour, ciao, and welcome to my little corner of the internet! For the past five years, I've been writing about the weird and wonderful on this travel and culture blog, with a particular focus on history, hidden gems, and offbeat adventures in Europe and beyond.

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